Family Trip It Seems Strange to Me, Essay

Family Trip

It seems strange to me, in retrospect, that I could have managed to reach the age of sixteen without having ever visited an amusement park. Of course, I was aware of places like the Epcot Center and Disneyland -- what American child isn't? But I grew up in a city that didn't have any local amusement parks, and my family didn't have a lot of extra money to spend on vacations. Instead, my parents saved up to send me to boarding school in Massachusetts. Living away from my parents and siblings was at times stressful, and required me to develop a great deal of independence. However, the road trip that we took to Bush Gardens in Virginia remains one of my fondest memories and marks a strong transition point between my adolescence and young adulthood.

When I returned home from school for the summer after my junior year, I had no idea that my parents had been planning our first big road trip as a family. I expected that I would spend a couple of months relaxing at home and renewing old friendships with the people I'd left behind in New York. Instead, I was greeted with the news that we would all be piling into my father's car to head to Virginia to experience, for the first time, an actual amusement park. As a teenager, I tried to act aloof and disinterested -- rides were for babies, after all -- but deep inside myself, I was bursting with joy and excitement.But, during the drive to Virginia, I certainly got the chance to get to know my parents and my younger brother and sister. In the close confines of our car, I learned that my brother had joined a baseball team and that my sister no longer cared for Barbie dolls. I also learned that my father had terrible taste in music after he forced us to listen to a soft rock station for more than three hours, and that my mother loved to play 'Eye Spy' and 'Twenty Questions'.

It was with great relief that we all tumbled out of the car to stretch our legs and breathe fresh air once we finally reached Bush Gardens. The park was packed, even though it was early in the morning, and I remember being jostled by strangers and holding tight to my sister's small hand so that we wouldn't get separated.….....